Meat made up a large portion of the diets of residents of eighteenth-century
England. An example of this is a meal served to Queen Anne in 1705
- selections included were: “Oleo, Pigeons, Sirloin of Beef rost, Venison,
Chyne of Mutton, Turkey, Snipes, Ducks, Partridge.”
[1]
The consumption
of meat was hardly restricted to the upper classes, however: while Queen
Anne was feasting on the aforementioned foods, her servants had two kinds
of meat per person
[2].
Similarly, in 1721 George the First ate a meal
which included at least nine different varieties of meat!
[3]
However, unlike Queen Anne, he ate some vegetables as well (“Artichokes”
and “French Beans”)
[4].

During
the 1700s venison was the meat which was a symbol of the highest social
status
[5].
If a person could serve venison, it meant that he/she
was the owner of a vast property, or knew someone who was
[6].

A Swedish tourist is known to have said in 1748 that the English were
good at cooking big pieces of meat, but did not seem to have talent in
any other arenas of cooking
[7].

Evening meals might have contained “cold meats, sweets, fruit, and wine
on ordinary occasions, a choice of hot dishes when company was present.”
[8]
“Hot” food was generally only served when guests were visiting, and most
English often ate “cold meats” for their evening supper.
[9]
In
fact, tourists complained about the chilly temperature of the victuals
they were served
[10].

Plucking the Turkey by Henry Walton
(1736-1813)

(Click on the image to learn to roast fowl!
Click "Back" when done)

The caliber of food became rather poor during the 1700s in England, as
meat rose in popularity.
[11]
Due to urbanization, large quantities
of meat had to be transported from the farms to the cities
[12].
Since the trip was by no means short or easy, “the quality of meat was
bound to be coarse and inferior.”
[13]
A doctor who was the author
of the 1788 book “The Honours of the Table” warned that the odor of meat
was such that one should keep it away from his/her nose while eating it!
[14]

The Roast Beef of Old England -- The Tate
Gallery, (Mennell 10th of 29 photoplates)

Fruit and Vegetables

Not very many English people in the eighteenth century had fruit at
all; only a very select, minuscule group of wealthy people had access to
fruit
[15].

In the 1700s the British feared uncooked fruit; they thought it would
give the person who consumed it “indigestion” or even “the plague.”
[16]

One interesting use of fruit in eighteenth-century England was that
of blackberries, which were marketed for dying clothes such colors as “navy
blue and indigo” [17].

As the 1700s were drawing to a close, “citrus fruits” became very important
to the Navy of England
[18].
The consumption of them prevented
scurvy
[19].
“The Admiralty decreed that a fixed amount of
lemon juice should be issued daily to all sailors after their fifth or
sixth week afloat, and stood by this decision to the tune of 1.6 million
gallons of it, in the period between 1795 and 1815.”
[20]

Today people worry about pesticides, but the “good old days” may never
have existed for fruits or vegetables: in eighteenth-century England they
were dirty in the first place and vendors sometimes used saliva as a “cleanser”!
[21]

For meals, vegetables were often prepared with a butter/flour mixture
[22].

“One of the greatest luxuries in dining is to be able to command plenty
of good vegetables well served up. But this is a luxury vainly hoped
for at set parties. The vegetables are made to figure in a very secondary
way, except, indeed, whilst they are considered as great delicacies, which
is generally before they are at their best -- excellent potatoes, smoking
hot and accompanied by melted butter of the first quality would alone stamp
merit on any dinner.”
-Thomas Walker
(Hunt, Eating and Drinking, An Anthology for Epicures, p. 134)

Cheese

Many types of English cheese became available during this time period;
a minimum of 40 different kinds have been documented
[23].

A recipe for “Cheddar Cheese” from 1700:

“Take the milk of twelve cows in the morning and the evening cream
of twelve cows, and put to it three spoonsful of rennet, and when it is
come [i.e. the curd] break it, and whey it, and when it is well wheyed
break it again, and work into the curd three lb. of fresh butter, and put
it in your press, and turn it in the press for an hour, or more, and change
the cloths and wash them every time you change them; you may put wet cloths
at first on to them, but towards the last put two or three fine dry cloths
to them. Let it lie thirty or forty hours in the press, according
to the thickness of the cheese; then take it out and wash it in whey, and
lay it in a dry cloth till it is dry, then lay it on your shelf, and turn
it often.”
[24]

Sugar

In the 1790s, the typical English individual consumed about four kilograms
of sugar each year
[25].

Bread

At one point, eighteenth-century English bread was thought to contain
bone fragments!
[26]
(A chemist eventually proved that this was not true)
[27].

A key element of bread in eighteenth-century British bread was
alum, which is a bleaching ingredient that also makes bread look bigger
[28].

Milk

A general eighteenth-century England rule for milk: “if it was not watered,
it was probably sour
[29].
” However, it was probably digestible
if taken from the cow itself immediately before consumption
[30].

Tea

In England during the 1700s tea was “the national drink.”
[31]
“It was ruinously expensive, anything between 16s.-50s. per lb., and the
used tea leaves would be dried, rolled, and re-sold again by the servants
of the rich. This was illegal...”
[32]

Coffee

In the eighteenth century coffee was more popular in London than any
other global location
[33].
Coffee was also thought to increase
the reproductive capabilities of men
[34].

Chocolate was a novelty during the 1700s in England
[39]. To be eaten
it was “stewed for hours,” deprived of “cocoa butter,” “reboiled with milk
and flavouring, and, just before serving, thickened with eggs.”
[40]
During this period, the British thought chocolate worked as a fertility
drug for women!
[41]
In fact “One health expert in the eighteenth
century described how, by the use of chocolate, his wife was ‘brought to
bed of twins, three times.’”
[42]

“Pease-soup” was served in the colder months.
[45] This addition to
the entree of a meal was comprised of “dried peas, which would be simmered
in stock or water with celery, onion, and seasoning.”
[46]
Peas were an integral part of the English diet during the eighteenth century
because people could dry them, and thus keep them in storage for a considerable
amount of time
[47].

Syllabub

This beverage was popular in the eighteenth century and contained “cider
or wine sweetened and flavoured with nutmeg, milk and then cream.”
[48]

Gruel

This common eighteenth-century British dish was composed of “boiled
oatmeal...with a little butter.”
[49]
Interestingly, it also often
contained alcoholic beverages, especially wine.
[50]
This
dish was popular (especially as an evening meal) because it helped compensate
for the lack of central heating in drafty houses [51].